Lions Lose in Typical Cursed Fashion

Week 1 is in the books for the Lions and the season is already in jeopardy. The Lions showed huge signs of improvement on the defensive side of the ball and made play after play to support the offense which was having trouble finding its legs. Then in a split second the offense’s legs were cut out from underneath as Matthew Stafford was strip-sacked by Julius Peppers.

Stafford pumped faked in the pocket and was about to cut the ball lose when he was blind sided by Peppers. Stafford’s arm was pulled backwards by Peppers as he was trying to throw and then both of their weight came down on Stafford’s shoulder while his arm was pinned back. I implore Lions fans to prepare for the fact that Stafford could be done for the season.

Despite the loss of Stafford, the Lions still managed to hold the Bears offense in check. The Bears consistently started at midfield and even had a drive start at the one inch line and couldn’t score. The defensive line harrassed Culter all day and never let the running game get started. Other than the two plays to Forte, the Lions defense was dominant and showed more signs of life than any time in the last decade.

The offense was struggling even before Stafford got injured, and I’m not sure if the Bears were bracketing Calvin Johnson or not, but the inability to get him involved hampered the rest of the offense. The offensive line struggled to handle the Bears’ overloaded front against the run, but held up fairly well in pass protection.

The play of the game ended up being made by the officials as they took a Lions’ touchdown off the board. Calvin Johnson made the game winning touchdown catch, got both feet, both knees and his rear on the ground with control of the ball. Due to an inconsistent rule in the rulebook, none of that mattered as CJ dropped the ball after it touched the ground. The rule came under fire several times in the 2009 season due to the inability to call it correctly, but it wasn’t changed or clarified in the offseason.

In the end, the Lions lost in typical cursed fashion, questionable call by the officials, major injury suffered and unrealized potential. Stafford will be out for a while and the schedule is brutal, Lions fans should brace for a rough month.

12 Responses to “Lions Lose in Typical Cursed Fashion”

I cant believe this crap that was a freakin touchdown and no amount of doublespeak from anyone will tell me different. I live in Buffalo and am a Bills fan but this should be making everyone indignant. When the bush league NHL did this to the Sabres in the finals against Dallas I gave up watching hockey and I’ll damn sure give up on football just as fast. This is not the NFL I grew up with. Its another case of making up rules as you go but only against the lowly teams. They can take the new game and shove it. I’ll not waste another Sunday. And by the way the Detroit couch is a major pussy for not standing up and screaming bloody murder evidently the status qua is more important to him than the respect of his players and city

Yardage and passer ratings don’t mean anything when they don’t result in points. The Lions defense defended a short field on almost every possesion, including a possession that started inside the 1 yard line, and the Bears couldn’t move the ball.

The Bears offense hit on one big play all game and surrendered 4 turnovers, 4 or 5 sacks, got called for holding several times trying to keep the Lions’ pass rush at bay. That’s a dominating performance by the Lions’ defense.

When the Bears were defending a short field they allowed touchdowns both times.

As to the catch, he more than controlled it and let the ball go to get up and celebrate. Yes, the rule says it must be controlled all the way to the ground, but the rule was implemented for trapped balls or after a player gets hit and goes to the ground. Not when a player catches it, gets both feet, one knee and his rear end down and then places the ball down on the ground.

The bottom line is the Bears snuck away with a victory because of a rule being interpreted in a situation that it shouldn’t have applied to. So far Cris Collinsworth is the only person I have seen that thinks the call was correct. All the other Fox, CBS, NFLN and Sunday Night Football guys said it was BS, not to mention every non-Chicago sportswriter in the country.

Dominant??? please, you homer…Bears moved the ball up and down the field in the first against the lions sunday. Bears kept shooting themselves in the foot whenever they were about to score. DA dropped a forsure TD in the endzone, Olsen fumbled on the ten, etc, etc… good defense, maybe..dominant, no way!

First and foremost, you are basing your arguement on yardage. Last year the Saints’ defense gave up a ton of yardage week in and week out but they forced turnovers, sacked the quarterback and prevented teams from scoring.

You can’t measure a defense’s performance based on yards surrendered.

Also, only a homer would say that the Bears shot “themselves in the foot” by committing 4 turnovers, getting sacked repeatedly, not being able to score from the 2 inch line and not being able to contain the pass rush.

Every fumble was forced by a Lions’ defender, the interception was a great play by Julian Peterson covering a WR in the deep middle of the field and the goal line stand highlighted the fact that the Lions’ defensive line owned the line of scrimmage.

The Bears got two big scoring plays that accounted for almost a third of their offense. Other than that, they barely moved the ball.

Not a true statement Anthony…If you allow teams to rack up yardage on the defense, and then pray there’s a turnover along the way…our D is going to spend WAY too much time on the field this season. I would rather hold them to three and out. If we can do that, THEN THAT’s a dominant defense. FYI…i’m not a Bears fan, just a discusted Lions fan.

Clearly Hall of Fame Voter and award winning beat writer Tom Kowalski and I are on the same page:

“Perhaps the best aspect was the production and nastiness of the defensive line. Everyone knew there was a substantial increase in talent and that it should be better, but the line was dominant in this game.”

I’m not saying the Lions can surrender tons of yards and survive off of turnovers. I’m not even close to saying that.

I’m saying when an opposing offense starts around their own 40 yard line or better on 8 of their 14 possessions, including 4 in Lions’ territory and the defense only gives up 12 points on those drives that is a dominant performance. NFL teams score on 65% of drives started at the 40 or better, the Bears scored on 3 of 8 and didn’t score from inside the 1 yard line. That’s 37.5% well below the NFL average.